“Preliminary information from the authorities indicates that this is one of the drones from the swarm that attacked the port of Primorsk (in Russia – ELTA). This is likely a Ukrainian drone that was affected by electronic countermeasures, lost its way, and crashed here,” Kaunas told reporters on Tuesday outside the Presidential Palace.
There has been considerable public dissatisfaction that the authorities only learned about the fallen object from residents, while military radars and border guards failed to detect the unmanned aircraft. For his part, the minister assured that everything is being done within the limits of available capabilities.
“I want to mention that neither Belarus nor, unfortunately, Lithuania saw it, because the drone was flying, it seems, below 300 meters; the authorities are still investigating this,” said Kaunas.
Susiję straipsniai
“Similarly, all the equipment that has already been ordered—that is, additional radars—will, unfortunately, arrive in 2026–2028. We are working on this; it’s just not possible to go and take that equipment off the shelves today,” the politician emphasised.
When asked whether the radars being purchased would be capable of detecting Shahed-type drones, the minister said he did not want to speculate.
“It’s very difficult to speculate because radar isn’t perfect—it doesn’t see from the ground all the way up to space. They have their operational limits; they have their own technologies,” he said.
“Our goal in deploying both radars and a sensor network (…), as well as radio frequency monitoring systems, is to create a unified mechanism that, let’s say, would increase the likelihood of detecting such threats,” emphasised Kaunas.
After a drone explosion in Varėna District, special services spring into action, recording what happened on Tuesday morning.
He also noted that during his visit to Ukraine at the end of March, he will discuss how unmanned aerial vehicles could be shot down using more cost-effective measures.
As reported, a suspected drone flew into Lithuania on Monday night and crashed in the Varėna District. The military reported that the object was not detected by radar—the services learned of the incident on Monday afternoon.
A military representative also stated that no explosives were found, but this does not mean they could not have been present.
Evidence and details are currently being collected, and the police are securing the area.
ELTA notes that in late July of last year, the police reported an unidentified unmanned aerial vehicle that had flown into Lithuania from Belarus. The crashed drone, equipped with an explosive device, was found at a training ground in the Jonava District.
A similar incident was recorded on July 10—on that occasion, an unmanned aerial vehicle named Gerbera, flying from Belarus, violated Belarus’s airspace. According to authorities, the drone posed no danger.